Malik McDowell, a senior defensive lineman at Southfield High School, signed his National Letter of Intent to play college football at Michigan State University on Wednesday. Digital First Media file photo/Vaughn Gurganian

SOUTHFIELD >> The Michigan State Spartans got their man.

Southfield’s Malik McDowell, Oakland County’s most fervently recruited high school football star and the state’s top player on defense, signed his National Letter of Intent with Michigan State University Wednesday morning in a well-attended ceremony ending his dramatic, whirlwind college recruitment.

News reports began surfacing early this week that McDowell was going to select the Spartans. Reacting to those reports, his parents started doing interviews with media outlets, making it known that they didn’t want their son to attend Michigan State, questioning the ability of Mark Dantonio’s program to eventually get him to the NFL.

Following McDowell’s announcement, which drew loud cheers from the hundreds of people in attendance, his father, Greg, told reporters that he supported his son’s final decision.

McDowell himself was relieved.

“The last few days were very stressful, I feel like a giant elephant had just been lifted off my shoulders,” he said. “I told (my parents) what I was going to do, they said to me what they wanted to say and that was that,” he said.

In her previous comments to the press, Joya Crowe, McDowell’s mom, specifically pointed to Michigan State’s campus scene being “too social” for her liking and her belief that Spartans defensive line coach Ron Burton didn’t have enough of a coaching pedigree to make her son an NFL Draft pick.

When asked about Burton Wednesday, McDowell wasn’t worried.

“Coach Burton knows a lot about the game and the position,” he said. “He’s been in the NFL, he knows what it takes to get there.”

Burton played four seasons in the NFL in the late-1980s and early-1990s as a linebacker with the Dallas Cowboys, L.A. Raiders and Arizona Cardinals.

Asked to sum up the primary reason for wanting to become a Spartan, McDowell was fast to respond.

“I think they can get the most out of my talents and make me the best player I can be,” he said.

Last fall, McDowell, considered the best or second-best player at his position in the entire country by various scouting services, tallied 90 tackles and eight sacks on a Southfield squad that captured an Oakland Activities Association White Division crown.